End closures for containers



May 30, 1961 w. e. ATKINSON END CLOSURES FOR CONTAINERS Filed March 10,1960 FIG. 2

IN VE N 7' 0/? WILLIAM G. A TK/NSON A TIORNE YS United States Patent ENDCLOSURES FOR CONTAINERS William G. Atkinson, London, Ontario, Canada,assignor .to Somerville Limited, London, Ontario, Canada Filed Mar. 10,1960, Ser. No. 14,155

1 Claim. ,(Cl. 229-444 This invention relates to end closures forcontainers and particularly containers for packaging frozen bulk icecream.

It has been the practice to package bulk ice cream in rimmed containersusually formed from a body, top and bottom of flexible sheet fibrousmaterial connected together by top and bottom metal rims. The ice creamis shipped in a frozen condition and when it reaches its destination foruse, it is desirable to remove the top end closure of fibrous materialbut to leave the top rim on the container body. This usually proves adiflicult operation because the sheet fibrous cover is usually frozen tothe top surface of the ice cream contained in the container and isfirmly secured around its peripheral edges by the top rim of thecontainer. Accordingly, substantial difiiculty is experienced inremoving the cover which normally requires the use of some type ofinstru ment for the purpose and, in some cases, the top rim of thecontainer is dislodged thereby depriving it of necessary reinforcementduring the subsequent removal from time to time of ice cream from thecontainer.

The present invention avoids these past difliculties by providing acover of special form which, by means of a simple pulling operationeffected by the users hand, will quickly remove the cover and leave thetop rim completely intact to reinforce the upper edge of the containerduring its subsequent use.

The invention generally comprises an end closure for a container, heldthereon by the top container rim secured on the container andoverlapping the peripheral edges of said closure, wherein the endclosure is formed of a sheet of flexible material of an areasubstantially coinciding with the cross-sectional area of the container,said sheet having a flap extending thereacross from one peripheral edgeto the opposite peripheral edge thereof, the flap being connected withsaid sheet as to freely overlap a portion of said sheet, said flapforming a finger grip for removing said cover readily whereby said coveris distorted by an outward pulling force on said flap as to free it fromsaid container rim.

The invention will be clearly understood by reference to the followingdetailed specification taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an ice cream container illustrating theimproved end" closure of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse section taken through theupper part of the container substantially along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective illustration of a portion of the endclosure illustrating a preferred manner of forming the flap of thepresent invention.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective illustration of the top portion of acontainer showing the manner in which the cover is readily removedtherefrom.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of an alternative form of end closureformation with a part broken away for illustration of detail; and

Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse section taken through apart of the cover substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, A indicates a generally conventional icecream container of cylindrical form having the cylindrical body 10 whichis capped at top and bottom by rims 11 and 12, respectively, which holdin place top and bottom end closure discs to enclose the containercompletely. The rims are of generally conventional form and are suchthat they will grip the body 10 as to retain the top and bottom coverssecurely on the body.

According to the present invention, the top end closure B composed of asheet of flexible fibrous material is formed with a flap 13 whichextends thereacross from one peripheral edge to an opposite peripheraledge to present within the perimeter of the cover a free gripping edge14 which, in the case of a cylindrical container, extends across thecover in the manner of a chord. The flap may be formed as a fold in thecover by shaping a major portion thereof as the major segment of a discand providing a web of material 15 between a remaining minor portion 16which is formed as a minor segment of a disc of the same diametricalproportions as the major portion so that when the web of material 15 isfolded under the major portion of the disc, the flap 13 having the freeedge 14 is formed while the minor segment of the disc then merges withthe major portion to form the complete disc with the web of material 15overlying part of the minor segment of the disc and underlying a portionof the major segment of the disc as to form the flap 13 with the freeedge 14. As shown in Fig. 3, the end edges 15a of the web 15 are cut atan angle leaving adjacent the periphery of the disc a free single edge17 on the major segment and a free single edge 18 on the minor segmentas to provide only a double layer of material, to underlie the containerrim, formed by the lapping margins of the major segment and the minorsegment of the disc at opposite ends of the flap 13. In other words, thethird ply formed by the web 15 when folded does not extend under theoverlapping flange of the container rim.

As shown in Fig. 2, the rim 11 is anchored around the top edge of thebody 10 over a shoulder formed on the exterior of the body such as by acircumferential band of fibrous material 19 and the rim is provided witha radially inwardly extending flange 11a which overlaps the peripheraledges of the end closure B as to firmly secure it in position with itsperipheral edges resting upon the upper periphery of the body 10. It isapparent, therefore, that difliculty ,would ordinarily be experienced inremoving the disc because of the secure manner in which it is held onthe container and having regard particularly to the packaging of icecream where the cover, in addition, will tend to be frozen to theproduct.

As particularly illustrated in Fig. 4, it is clear that the cover of thepresent invention may be removed with facility since it is onlynecessary for the user to introduce fingers of his hand under the flap13 and by applying an outward pulling force, the cover will tend todistort so that it is readily freed from the grip of the container rim.

While it is generally preferred to form the flap as a fold in the endclosure, as above described, it will be obvious that it may be formedotherwise. In this instance, reference is made to Figs. 5 and 6 whereina major segment of the disc 20 is lapped with a minor segment 21 and aportion of these lapped surfaces is secured together as at 22 such as byadhesive, stapling, etc., to leave the flap 23 haivng the free edge 24.It is obvious that with the parts firmly secured that the same actioncan be obtained in removing the cover by gripping the flap 23 andsubjecting it to an outward pulling force.

The advantages of the invention are, therefore, apparent in theforegoing and While the invention has been illustrated in respectto acylindrical container, it will be appreciated that it will apply also tocontainers of other cross-section, such as a rectangular container, and

wherein the free flap might readily be disposed to extend across a topcorner from one edge of the cover to the adjacent meeting edge normalthereto. Moreover, While the utility of the invention has beenparticularly described with reference to containers for ice cream, it

.will be obvious that it can be applied to containers,

:having a fibrous or flexible top closure, used for other designed tooverlap the peripheral edges of said closure comprising a sheet offlexible material having a major segment and a minor segment, the curvesof which are substantially of the same radius connected by a web of saidmaterial extending between the chords of said segments, said web beingfoldable along the lines of said chords to underlap one of said segmentsand overlap the other as to units said segmentsin a disc and form a freeedged flap extending across said disc from one margin thereof to itsopposite margin, said web ofmaterial being shorter in length than thelength ofsaid chords whereby said segments form a two-ply lap atv theperiphery of the'disc adjacent the ends of said flap.

References Cited in the file'of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

